Like the Bolsheviks we can make revolution!

The following, written by co-workers of PL members, was set to be given at the celebration of the Bolshevik Revolution in New York City. The event was cancelled in order to participate on the national “Cease Fire” demonstration against Israel’s crimes of genocide of Palestinian families. The speech has been modified into an article for publication so that all readers of CHALLENGE can take inspiration from our communist predecessors.
November 6 should be a celebratory occasion for the international working class, but this year PLP will spend the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in D.C. to protest genocide in Gaza and the continued occupation of Palestine.

This is not only an issue of moral urgency, but should be deeply important to us as communists and as the working class.

Lenin has said
 “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”
From Gaza to climate catastrophe to labor strikes to migrant crises, these feel like weeks where decades can potentially happen.

It was on this day in 1917 that the Bolshevik party led workers to establish the first ever communist state-freeing thousands from the violence of capitalism and laying the blueprint for revolutionary movements worldwide. Communist workers went on to spread education and healthcare to millions, almost single handedly defeat Nazis, and aided decolonial struggles around the world.

So let's consider Russia in 1917.
Underdeveloped, un-industrialized, and subject to western imperialism, few would have expected Russia to be the place of the first successful communist revolution in history. The Bolshevik party too was small and fringe-it was not expected to lead the first communist revolution in history.

Similarly, it can be hard to imagine a successful revolutionary movement happening for us now, but like the Bolsheviks we have a party, like the Bolsheviks we believe in internationalism, and like the Bolsheviks we want to seize state power too!

Revolutions don’t happen spontaneously, but they also don’t occur without the right circumstances and without the right strategy.

Women workers helped to bring the October Revolution when they marched into Petrograd demanding bread and demanding an end to WWI. But this alone didn’t lead to the success of the October Revolution. They were marching to fix the specific conditions that they found themselves in at that particular moment that became impossible to survive in. Bread and peace were important, but that alone is not communism.

What can we learn from this? The Bolsheviks and used this to educate people and build their base. They recognized revolutionary potential in peasants and in the working class and gave them a political project to work towards. They did not just want bread or an end to the war. They did not want reform. They wanted revolution!

It is our job too, to see revolutionary potential in mass movements. There is revolutionary potential in protests to free Palestine. There is revolutionary potential in movements against racist police. It’s the job of communists to recognize this revolutionary potential and make sure that it is matched with principled political ideology.

The history of zionism rooted in anti-communism
In analyzing the current humanitarian crisis befaling Palestinian workers and kids, we must ask ourselves how we got here and why powerful Imperialist nations like the United States and Great Britain have such vested interest in supporting the ongoing acts of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocidal terror. Much of the conversation comes back to the age-old fear of communist revolution. The same anti-semitism that provoked the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany also spurred support for the zionist cause and establishment of the often mentioned but less contextualized Balfour Declaration of 1922. A large portion of the antisemitism that pervaded Europe during the early 20th century was a manifestation of an association European white nationalists were drawing between Jews and Communist movements of the time. This may sound familiar in the current era when we hear conspiracies about the likes of George Soros orchestrating BLM protests in 2020 or pushing critical race theory in schools. A continuation of this association that has morphed into a dog whistle for anti semitism.  

Winston Churchill puts this association very clearly in his 1920 article Zionism Versus Bolshevism: A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People. In reference to the October Revolution he is very explicit in his antisemitism and association of Jewish people with Communism. “There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution by these international and for the most part atheistical Jews.”

His solution, and the solution that many imperial powers propose even to this day was Zionism.
As with the Bolshevik Revolution, we must remember this time period and understand that the actions that followed are crucial to comprehending why the United States and other imperialist nations continue to fund Israel’s atrocities. Furthermore this historical context explains why revolution is the only path forward lest we sacrifice a true liberation of Palestinian workers and workers everywhere.

No war but class war for communism
We don’t want a ceasefire–we want international communism. We don’t want a reformed police force—we want communism. We know that without a fight for communism, all of these struggles are impossible, but in all of these struggles there is the potential for revolution.

The Russian Revolution most famously happened in response to World War I. And in a time when workers around the world are again suffering from the threat of imperial war, this is more relevant than ever.

From Palestine to Brooklyn capitalism harms us all.
At a time when many supposed leftists are revealing themselves to be ideologically aligned with the imperatives of the state, we must remember it was the Bolsheviks who stood firm in their support of the working class while the Mensheviks found themselves willing to support the inhumane clash of Imperial powers known as World War I.

We will continue to say no to imperial war, even when it is unpopular to do so.
But as communist we look to the past to set a path to a brighter future. This path is often mired in darkness and requires us to light a dialectical torch illuminating the footsteps of our comrades and the fundamental contradictions at play between the interests of the ruling class and the working class.